April Fools! This isn't really a story. I just posted it to make you all think that I posted something new...
Double April Fools. There's really a story.
OK that was really lame. Sorry everyone for my horrible and very lame attemot at an April Fool's Joke. I'm horrible at them. For putting up with that you all get a virtual cookie. OK now on to serious business. Earlier today I was reading the most recent posts and Reflection noitclfeR said she was going to write an April Fool's Day story. Well that turned out to be an April Fool's joke but I actually liked the idea. So Peace, this story is for you. Without your joke, there would be no story. Actually, you get double recoginition because she helped me pick out a part of the story. She doesn't know which part yet though. I posted that the first person to pick a number from 1-5 would basically get a say so in my story. She picked 4 and in turn, that played a part in this story. Peace I'll tell you what it meant after you read the story hahahaha. My 2nd dedication goes to the wonderful .87 for doing a lst minute Beta job for me. So thanks Bubbles! Your comments made me laugh, even though I faceplamed at one part (I think you know which part that is), and also the number of times you wrote the word comma was humurous to me as well.
And now that I've rambled for a decent amout of time I think you can all go on now to read my story. I don't actually own any of these characters. Things would be very interesting if I did though...things involving Joy, a llama and a one way plane ride to Siberia.
The King of Pranks gets dethroned
April first.
Not a day that is too out of the ordinary. People get up, go to work or school, and go about their lives as normal. In almost all aspects, it is a perfectly normal day. That is unless you live in the Anubis House, and your name is either Jerome Clarke or Alfie Lewis.
The two 'resident comedians'—as they were called by their friends—took April first to the extreme by pulling off as many pranks as they could fit into a single day. And of course, they figured this April Fool's Day would be no different…
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"If those two try to pull anything on me like they did last year I'll swear I'll, I'll…"
"You'll what, Amber?" Patricia asked irritably. Patricia and Amber, along with Mara, Mick and Fabian were all sitting at the dining room table eating breakfast. As soon as Amber found out it was April first she hadn't shut up about how much she hated the day. Patricia, who didn't particularly mind April fool's, was getting annoyed with Amber and her complaining.
"Look, let's just try to get through this day with as little stress as possible," Fabian said calmly.
"And why is everyone getting stressed?" Fabian turned to see Nina standing behind him with a slightly confused look on her face.
"It's April Fool's Day," Amber stated as if that was all the explanation necessary. When Nina only looked more confused Mara explained what Amber meant.
"Every April Fool's Day Jerome and Alfie go overboard on pranks and practical jokes."
"Yeah, and last year was the worst," Mick added.
"What happened?"
Well," Amber began, "they did all sorts of things. They convinced me that there was a French test that day, they put plastic wrap in front of Mick and Fabian's door, and they took all the bottles of lotion and filled them with mayonnaise! Mick smelled like it for two days."
"And don't forget they put those cotton balls in Trudy's shoes. She almost went out and bought all new shoes because she thought they shrunk," Fabian added.
"But that's not the worst thing they did. They took my shampoo bottle and mixed in green hair dye! My hair was green for days until I was able to get an appointment with my hair stylist."
"Wow. They did all that? In one day?" Nina looked at each of them bewildered. Shaking her head slightly, Nina sat down at the table next to Fabian and began pouring a bowl of Cheerios. She took into account that Jerome and Alfie might have done something to it so she made sure she was careful. When Nina was sure that there was nothing wrong with her cereal she reached across the table and grabbed the carton of milk.
"What the?" Nina cried as she began pouring milk on her cereal. Everyone stopped eating and looked at Nina.
"Is that…lemonade?" Fabian asked as he looked at Nina's cereal bowl. Sure enough, instead of milk there was lemonade in the bottom of the bowl. From outside the door everyone could hear stifled laughter. With a smirk Patricia got up and stood in front of the door. She clenched her fist and slammed the door as hard as she could. There was no laughter after that.
"It's not even eight yet and I'm wishing this day was over Mara sighed."I don't know if I could put up with a whole day of those two playing jokes like this."
"Well what if we pranked them back?" Nina asked in a low whisper. Everyone leaned in closer and began discussing a way to get Jerome and Alfie back for all of the pranks they had pulled in the past.
At some point, Victor came into the room and yelled at them to go to school. They all walked out of the house, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary. French class was first that morning, so everyone took their normal seats.
Nina turned in her chair to face Amber and Patricia. "All right, so is everyone clear on the plan?" she whispered. Both of the girls nodded and behind them, Mick and Mara gave Nina a thumbs-up.
Mrs. Andrews walked into the room and cleared her throat. "Now I know that some of you think today is some sort of do whatever I want and not get in trouble day. But I can assure you, if I catch any of you pulling a prank there will be severe punishment for the one responsible." She glared at Jerome and Alfie who both smirked and exchanged knowing glances.
Mrs. Andrews began teaching, and when her back was turned Alfie threw his pencil across the room. It rolled across the floor and stopped a few inches from Mrs. Andrew's feet. "Ah yes how very humorous. Who threw this?" Mrs. Andrews bent down to pick up the pencil and when she did, a loud rip filled the classroom. She shot back up and placed her hands behind her back as the classroom burst into a chorus of laughter.
With an ever reddening face, Mrs. Andrews quickly walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her. Several heads turned to Jerome and Alfie. With a wiggle of his eyebrows, Jerome held up two pieces of fabric. A few people giggled while others just rolled their eyes. Fabian leaned towards Nina and whispered, "I'm so glad we're going to put an end to this whole pranking thing. It's getting out of control."
"I agree."
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By the end of the day Nina was so sick of Jerome and Alfie's practical jokes, she thought she was going to lose her mind. The comedians had played a practical joke on every one of their teachers, even Mr. Sweet. They had switched Mick's sports gear with clothes a ten year old girl would wear. Mara had found about 10 heads of lettuce in her locker. Nina had no idea how they pulled that one off, and she didn't really want to. They had broken into Fabian's locker and replaced all of his books with ones in Spanish. School finally ended and Nina had never been more thankful.
When they got back to Anubis House Nina and Amber went upstairs to change out of their uniforms. "I'm going to head downstairs Amber," Nina said when she finished changing.
"All right. I'll be down later," Amber replied. She sat down at her vanity and began brushing her hair. Taking her time, Amber completely redid her hair and makeup for the evening. While she was finishing up there was a soft knock at her door.
"Come in!"
"Hey Amber, Patricia said you wanted to see me?" Alfie asked as he walked into the room. "She said it was important."
"Oh yes. Very important. You see Alfie, tonight my parents are coming into town to visit and I don't want anything to happen to me while they're here. Do you think you could tell me what you and Jerome have planned so I don't get pranked?" Amber looked Alfie straight in the eyes and threw in a little pout for added effect. "Please? It would me so much to me."
Alfie chewed his lip for a moment. Then, with a sigh he sat down on the edge of Amber's bed and looked over at her. "All right Amber, I'll tell you. But you can't let Jerome know I told you."
"You have nothing to worry about. I never tell a secret. You know that Alfie." Amber grinned and leaned closer to Alfie to listen to what he had to say.
Downstairs Jerome was lounging on the couch with a wide smirk on his face. The day had gone perfectly for him. Everyone fell for every prank that was pulled. In his opinion, they were all a bunch of suckers and if they fell for such simple pranks they deserved to be pranked again. The sound of footsteps coming into the room caught his attention momentarily."I bet you're really pleased with yourself aren't you?" Patricia asked crossly as she sat across from him.
"Why yes I am."
"And you really have nothing better to do than sit around and think of ways to prank people?"
"I can't think of a more entertaining way to spend a day."
"Really? I thought spending a day with your girlfriend would be better than this. Oh wait, you don't have one do you?"
"Classy."
"Hey just because it isn't classy doesn't mean it's not the truth." Patricia smirked, the only person in the house who could ever smirk as well as Jerome. She picked up a magazine off the coffee table began thumbing through it.
A little while later, Mara walked into the room and looked around for a second. "Has anyone seen Mick?" she asked.
"I think he's in his room," Patricia said casually. Jerome grunted and looked out the window even though there was nothing there. Mara flashed a sympathetic smile and walked out of the room. Patricia looked back down at her magazine but suddenly there was a loud crash that echoed through the entire house. Jerome and Patricia both jumped up and ran out of the living room.
"Mara!" Patricia screamed when she saw the scene before her. Mara was lying on the floor, not moving. On the ground next to her was a bookcase that stood in the hallway. Scattered around the floor were all sorts of books and bookends. Everyone had come into the hallway at that point and for a second no one knew what to do.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped on, everyone sprang to life. Patricia, Mick, Fabian, and Amber all ran to Mara's side and started calling her name. Nina ran back up the stairs, screaming for Trudy. Jerome and Alfie continued to stand there with their mouths hanging open. "Jerome," Alfie asked slowly, "what did you tie the trip wire to?" Jerome didn't respond. His eyes were about as big as Frisbees and his breath was coming in short little gasps. Nina and Trudy came flying down the stairs and they pushed right past Jerome and Alfie.
"Mara? Mara sweetie? Can you hear me?" Trudy asked. She shook Mara's shoulder roughly but she didn't stir. "That's it. I'm taking her to the hospital."
"Shouldn't you call an ambulance?" Jerome asked in a very small voice.
"There's no time. It would take too long for them to get here. Mick. Fabian. Help me with her. We'll put her in the car. Let's go." Carefully Mick and Fabian picked up Mara, trying not to move her too much. Everyone watched as they walked out the front door.
"Jerome I told you the trip wire was a bad idea," Alfie yelled.
"Trip wire? You never told me about a trip wire Alfie," Amber whispered softly. "Why didn't you say anything about the trip wire?"
"You told her? Alfie I thought we agreed to never tell others about the pranks."
"She asked me to, her parents are coming tonight and she didn't want to get caught in anything…"
"Actually Alfie, I lied about my parents. We, as in all of us but the two of you, wanted to get back at you for all the pranks you pulled. So I tricked Alfie into telling me what all of the pranks were so we could turn them against you guys. But now Mara's hurt and I…I…" Amber's entire body began to shake with sobs. Nina stood by her and gave her a reassuring hug. Patricia and Fabian both stood by her and patted her shoulders, telling her everything would be all right.
Mick walked up to Jerome and glared at him. "If anything happens to her Clarke, it will be on your head. I hope you know that." He stormed away and Alfie gave Jerome a nervous look. Both of them knew that being on the wrong side of Mick's temper was not a fun place to be.
Hours passed and there was no word from Trudy about Mara's condition. Amber had finally calmed down, but was now sitting on the couch staring into space. Patricia, Fabian and Nina were all whispering to each other, occasionally glancing over at Jerome who was sitting in a chair also staring into space. Mick was right; if Mara was hurt then it was his entire fault. The trip wire had been his idea. He never expected anyone to actually get hurt by it though.
"Will the three of you shut up?" Jerome finally snapped. He glared at Nina, Fabian and Patricia. The three of them all looked at each other but didn't say anything. Jerome took a deep breath and tried to clear his head.
With the new silence, the sudden sound of the ringing phone filled the house even more than usual. For the first two rings everyone just stared at it, almost afraid to answer. Finally Mick got up from where he was sitting at the table and walked over to the phone. "Hello?" he asked softly. "How is she? Really? OK we're on our way now." Mick set the phone down and looked at his house mates. "She's awake and Trudy said she wants to see all of us." Jerome gulped. He was afraid of what they would find when they got to the hospital.
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The trip to the hospital had been spent in total silence. No one talked about what they might find once they got to the hospital. Trudy met them in the waiting room and they all followed her down the long, narrow hallway. "Only one at a time," Trudy said when they reached a door with the number 502 printed on the outside.
"I'll go first," Mick said. Fabian patted him on the back and he slowly opened the door. Jerome didn't get the chance to see inside the room for very long, but he did see a lot of machines. His stomach did a few flips as the door closed. Being in hospitals always made him nervous.
After a while Mick came out. There were no words to describe the look on his face. The closest description was that someone had run over his puppy right in front of him, but that still didn't quite match the hurt in his eyes. Amber went in next. It took her several tries to actually turn the knob, that's how badly her hands were shaking. When she came out, Patricia went in, followed by Nina and then Fabian. When he came out he looked at Jerome and Alfie and gave a small, hopeful smile.
"You go first mate," Alfie said. He gestured towards the door and Jerome took a tentative step forward. This was the moment he had been dreading. What was he going to find on the other side of the door? From everyone's reactions he knew that it wouldn't be good. Ever since the call from Trudy came out, Jerome had been planning on what he was going to say to her. For starters, he was going to apologize about a million times. Sadly, that was about as far as he had gotten.
Swallowing the nerves that were dancing in his stomach Jerome turned the handle and stepped into the room. It looked more or less like any other hospital room. There was a bed, a chair, a table but there were also dozens of beeping machines. Mara was lying in the bed, and Jerome thought about how small it made her look. The white sheets were practically swallowing her up.
There was a second chair at the edge of the bed, so Jerome sat down in it and looked at Mara. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing peacefully. Most of the machines had wires running out of them that connected to Mara. Each one was measuring something different but Jerome had no idea what and what the readings on them meant.
"Mara?" Jerome asked softly. He wanted to reach over and tap her shoulder but he didn't want to disturb her. Just as he was about to call her name again, her eyes began to flutter open.
"Jerome?" she whispered. She blinked wearily at him and he chewed his lip nervously.
"Mara, I have to tell you something. The reason you got hurt it was because…"
"Hold on Jerome. There's something I have to tell you first." She lifted her hand and took Jerome's in hers. He leaned forward, trying to hear what Mara was about to say. She seemed so serious. Was she about to tell him that she was really hurt and might be paralyzed or something like that? Jerome wasn't sure if he would be able to handle news like that.
"I need to tell you…I need to tell you that…that… "Tell me what Mara? Please tell me."
"I need to tell you that…you better hate getting pranked as much as the rest of us do." Jerome froze. What did she just say? Was this all a prank? It couldn't have been. Jerome dropped Mara's hand and stared at her, completely dumbfounded, as she sat up in her bed and pushed the sheets back. Jerome was even more surprised to see that all of the wires he thought were hooked up to her were just sitting on the edge of the bed. She was never hooked up to the machines in the first place.
"Wait? What?" Jerome continued to stare at Mara as she got out of the hospital bed and slipped her shoes on.
"You guys can come in now? We got him!" The door opened and Patricia, Amber, Nina, Fabian, Mick and Trudy all walked in. Every one of them was laughing. Alfie came in last, his mouth hanging open.
Jerome looked at each of his housemates. They were all in on whatever sick prank this was. "Will someone tell me what's going on here?" Jerome yelled.
"This entire thing was a set up Jerome. Mara never got hurt," Mick explained.
"Yeah. Everything was staged to look like one of your stupid pranks had actually backfired," Patricia added.
"But how?" Alfie asked.
"We came up with a plan at breakfast. All of us were tired of you two causing so much trouble on April Fool's Day, so we decide to play a little prank of our own," Fabian said.
"So you all knew about the trip wire?" Jerome asked.
"Yeah, Fabian and I saw it when we came out of our room. We both knew that it would be the perfect stage for our prank," Mick said with a shrug.
"But what about the plan you guys had made to take down all our pranks?" Alfie interjected.
Nina stepped forward, ready to give an explanation. "It was a cover story. Originally Amber was going to tell us what Alfie told her, and we would have picked a prank from the information she gave us. But then Fabian and Mick found the trip wire so we modified our plan slightly. So, I texted Amber, telling her that there was a change in the plan. Then Fabian, Mara and I all pushed over the bookcase and Mara got on the ground beside it as if she had tripped and knocked the whole thing over. Then Fabian and I hid in the kitchen while you and Patricia came running out of the living room."
"Trudy, were you in on this too?" Jerome asked. He turned to the kind house mother and she looked down at her shoes.
"I'm sorry Sweetie. But after the cotton ball incident last year and finding soda pop in my cleaning supplies earlier today I finally agreed that you two had taken the pranks too far."
"But the hospital? How did you get them in on it?" Jerome was firing questions as quickly as the others could answer them. He was furious, amazed, and confused all at the same time. He had never felt so many conflicting emotions at the same time before.
"My dad works here. He let us use this room. It's not even one of the actual hospital rooms, it's just a storage room," Mick answered. As if on cue, the door opened and in walked Mick's father.
"Well I see everything is out in the open now. I hope this taught you a lesson young man," Mr. Campbell said as he pointed at Jerome. He meekly nodded.
"Thanks for everything Dad," Mick said. Mr. Campbell nodded and patted his son on the back before leaving the room. "So can we all go home now? I missed my evening run and I need to get some sort of exercise in."
Everyone began to walk out of the room. "I have one last question. Whose idea was this to begin with?" Jerome watched as six hands all pointed to Nina. "Well I never suspected the American to be this devious. I'll have to watch out around you from now on." Everyone laughed as they filed out of the room. Jerome fell in step beside Mara, who was grinning happily.
"Learn your lesson?" She asked as they reached the lobby.
"Mara you've known me long enough to know that lessons tend to take a long time to really sink in. But in this case there has been an exception. I promise I'll be more careful with my pranks. Starting next year." They both stared laughing as they walked out of the hospital into the crisp evening air.
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So just like that, another April first came and went. Most people had a completely average day. In fact, many forgot it was April Fool's Day to begin with. For the Anubis House kids, this had been an April Fool's Day they would never forget. To everyone's surprise, Jerome swore in front of everyone that he would back off on the pranks next year. Everyone assumed that Jerome's pranking days were over for good. That is until that night when Amber went to brush her teeth, and she found out that her toothpaste wasn't really toothpaste.
"Jerome!" Amber screeched.
"Hey, I said I would back off starting next year!"
One final note. House of Ellada will be updated this weekend. I'll make sure of it. I have my life back now after a few crazyyyyy weeks of school.
Hope you all enjoyed my story. Peace out.
~Wolfie
(Don't forget to review!)